I've developed a proof-of-concept playcount plugin that is based on metadata instead of the file location. The plugin tracks unique combinations of artist/album/title items into a SqlServerCe local database.

In order not to interfere with the file based counters, the data is exposed in a different section at the properties window, and %play_count_sql%, %first_played_sql%, %last_played_sql% tags.

In addition, since the plugin tracks metadata, different named files, or duplicate items that have the same artist/album/title combo, will all get the same playcount information. Currently, it will not detect metadata renames, so they will count as different tracks once renamed.

The playcount database is saved at the user's foobar APPData folder in a file named "PlayCount.sdf"